Bitcoin units & denominations

What is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a digital currency. It’s created, used, stored – all digitally. The concept of Bitcoin was introduced in 2008 by a pseudonymous programmer – who called it a P2P Electronic Cash System. His/her pseudonym is Satoshi Nakamoto.

In contrast to traditional currencies, the reserve of bitcoins is fixed. There will eventually be only 21 million bitcoins in circulation and not one more.

Bitcoin Denominations

Bitcoin has a metric system of denominations used as units of Bitcoin. The main goal of the bitcoin currency, abbreviated BTC, is to make it harmonious to worldwide currencies. Bitcoin tries to accomplish this function by being divisible down to the 8 decimal place. This is an adequate thing, given the actual high price of 1 Bitcoin theses days. The smallest denomination in a Bitcoin is called ‘Satoshi’, in homage to its creator. Below is a list of the named denominations and their value in BTC.

Denomination

Abbreviation

Familiar name

Value in BTC

Satoshi

SAT

Satoshi

0.00000001 BTC

Microbit

µBTC (uBTC)

Microbitcoin or Bit

0.000001 BTC

Millibit

mBTC

Millibitcoin

0.001 BTC

Centibit

cBTC

Centibitcoin

0.01 BTC

Decibit

dBTC

Decibitcoin

0.1 BTC

Bitcoin

BTC

Bitcoin

1 BTC

DecaBit

daBTC

Decabitcoin

10 BTC

Hectobit

hBTC

Hectobitcoin

100 BTC

Kilobit

kBTC

Kilobitcoin

1000 BTC

Megabit

MBTC

Megabitcoin

1000000 BTC

XBT code vs. BTC

The existing bitcoin code BTC, used by the large majority of the bitcoiners and most media channels, would not comply with ISO 4217, which requires the 1st letter of global commodities to be “X”. It explains why several notorious foreign currency websites, such as Bloomberg, Coinhills and XE, have already implemented XBT as the code for bitcoin, though it is an unofficial code according to the ISO 4217 standard.